The government and the Sweden Democrats have agreed on stricter wage requirements for labor immigrants. The proposal means that today’s minimum level of SEK 13,000 a month should be raised to SEK 26,560 a month.
TV4 Nyheterna’s political commentator Ann Tiberg explains what the proposal entails.
Why is the government making this change?
The government wants to make it more difficult for people from countries outside the EU to get a work permit in Sweden to perform simpler jobs that do not require education. Instead, they want those jobs to be applied for by people who are already in the country, and the hope is that this will reduce unemployment in groups that are far from the labor market.
At the same time, an investigation is underway which will propose an even higher salary requirement to work in Sweden – and which will also propose exemptions from those requirements for certain groups. So this salary requirement will only apply for a short time before the rules change again.
How likely is it to be implemented and when can it become a reality?
The proposal must go out for consultation so that organizations and authorities have the opportunity to submit their views on it before it becomes a reality. It is known that, for example, the employers’ organizations will leave sharp criticism, but the government does not have to take it into account and can go ahead with the proposal anyway.
It does not need to be decided by the Riksdag, this is a regulation that the government itself can decide on and it is scheduled for 1 October.
How will this be felt in society?
It will be more difficult to get a work permit in Sweden for groups such as cleaners and restaurant assistants. It is not that many people who are affected: the government itself estimates that it affects a couple of thousand, and in total the Swedish Migration Agency granted roughly 24,000 work permits last year to people in the group in question.
The government hopes that it will lead to reduced unemployment in certain groups, but industry organizations claim that it is difficult to recruit for these occupations and that it will instead lead to a labor shortage.